Thousands of children are being medicated for ADHD – when the condition may not even exist

Although clinical proof of ADHD as a genuine illness has never been found, new data has revealed that UK prescriptions for Ritalin and other similar ADHD medications have more than doubled in the last decade.

According to Sami Timimi, a consultant child psychiatrist, “there is no robust evidence to demonstrate that what we call ADHD correlates with any known biological or neurological abnormality”.

Author of Hyperactive, Matthew Smith, believes the diagnostic threshold is now so low that it has led us to a place where we have pathologised naughtiness as a mental disorder requiring medication. “And not just naughtiness,” he adds. “All sorts of children, simply those that daydream and don’t pay attention, could now be diagnosed with ADHD and placed on medication.”

The behaviours associated with ADHD are real, and the problems they cause can be very hard to live with. Yet however desperate they are for help, all parents should be cautious and sceptical about the “cure” they are likely to be offered. Being different is not an illness.